WAXAHACHIE, Texas – Oklahoma City University baseball coach Denney Crabaugh posted his 1,300th career victory in a 5-0 whitewash of Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) on Friday at the Waxahachie Sports Complex.
Crabaugh improved his record to 1,300-404-2 in his 27th season guiding Oklahoma City. The Stars, ranked fourth in the NAIA, moved to 32-10, 14-2 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
Among current NAIA baseball coaches, Crabaugh stands second in wins only to Woody Hunt of Cumberland (Tenn.). Hunt has 1,468. The NCAA lists 19 baseball coaches all-time who have reached 1,300 wins.
Crabaugh wanted to follow his father Duane into coaching baseball.
"Growing up around coaches, and listening to the Xs and Os of the situational strategies, seeing that really put a hook in me," Denney Crabaugh said. "Seeing the impact they made on people's lives, the impact coaches made on my life, I know I wanted to be in a position to make an impact on young men's lives. So far it's worked out pretty good for me. I've enjoyed it. Those personal relationships you have with your players go beyond the winning and the losing. Those things make the job worthwhile."
This year, Denney Crabaugh entered the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the OCU Athletics Hall of Fame after earlier in his career becoming a member of the NAIA Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He led the Stars to the 2005 national championship and a .763 winning percentage.
Matt Young became the winning pitcher to go to 7-0 this year. Young, a sophomore right-hander from Glendora, Calif., struck out 10 while limiting Southwestern Assemblies to four hits and two walks in seven shutout innings. Holden Lyons, a sophomore righty from Edmond, Okla., picked up his fourth save by retiring SAGU in order the last two innings. Lyons fanned three.
J.J. Bissell pounded a home run over the right-field fence to lead off the third inning. Connor Lynch nailed an RBI double in the fourth.
Ryan Wright put the Stars ahead 3-0 with a base hit to left in the eighth. Joe Lytle knocked in two more runs by belting a triple to deep left in the ninth.
Lynch, a senior from Marietta, Ga., went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI, and Adam Clark, a senior from St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a double. Lytle, a freshman from Yukon, Okla., went 2-for-5, scored a run, doubled, tripled and brought in two runs for OCU.
The Stars have a 1 p.m. doubleheader scheduled Saturday against Southwestern Assemblies of God in Waxahachie, Texas.